Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Bike Chase

In the summer of 1973 I attended a school mate's birthday party. He lived in the downtown area of Winter Part, near Rollins College. During the party several guys had been riding his off-road motorcycle up and down the street, not taking it far as it wasn't street legal. I didn't care to ride the dirt bike until the birthday boy's older sister asked me to give her a ride. All the girls in my 9th grade class were fourteen, but since I had failed 2nd and 7th grades I was sixteen. All the fourteen year old girls were fine with having a sixteen year-old boy friend, but it didn't seem right to me so I avoided them. Birthday boy's sister was sixteen and I liked her just fine so agreed to give her a ride on the dirt bike.

Being too mature to ride up and down the street, I pointed towards the Rollins College campus. It didn't take long for a city cop to try to pull me over, which I declined to cooperate with. The bike was not very powerful and my passenger made maneuvering difficult, so losing the cop was difficult. Looking for obstacles he couldn't go through I mistakenly put us in a closed ally that deadened into a parking garage. With no where else to go I climbed to the top floor. The cop must have known I was trapped in the garage because he took his time driving up the ramp's turns. It was late Saturday afternoon so the bank's parking lot was mostly empty with a few cars sprinkled in. On the top floor there was only one car parked, but there was no way to hide behind it. As I took in the surroundings, looking for a way out, a movement caught my eye.

What I hadn't noticed until the doors opened was the elevator. The elevator doors opened and a guy stepped off. Before the doors could close again I had my front wheel in far enough to block them. The doors opened again and I drove all the way in. Without being told to do so the girl jumped off and hit the button for the ground floor. As the doors closed we saw the cop slowly pull into position to block the ramp. As the elevator descended the girl kissed me.

I often modify my real-life events when I write fiction novels. This is one of those that I want to use but haven't been able to work in yet.

Read more real life stories from Clayton Waagner in his autobiography:A Life Wasted.